Every year in the third week of July The Flying Aces Club gets together to stand in an open field, fry their brains in the hot sun and wind up rubber bands. Is this my idea of fun, well given that I drove 2000 Km to get there I'd say YUP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my second trip to Geneseo, the previous one being in the dreaded Y2K. This year I did not bother to compete because quite frankly, I knew better. I went for three reasons:

1) To meet people I'd only talked to over the Internet,

2) To show off some of my original designs

3) To have some fun

4) Visit My cousins and

5) Visit Museums

I accomplished all my goals and then some!

First let's talk about the Museums I hit

1) New England air Museum.

Great place, Been there three times now. They have finally restored the B 29 Superfortress and are working on the F89 sometime. By opening up my camera to an F4 with a 4 setting exposure I was able to finally get some good pics of the planes that didn't turn out the last time. These guys have everything in both civil and military planes. Military cover WW! to Present. Civil focuses on racing planes, light planes and Sikorsky's efforts. A few of the Wrecks are gone and the hangers are crowded, but it is well worth the visit.

To get there go to Windsor Locks Ct, just north of Hartford on the interstate.

2) Owl's Head Transport Museum

Went there last time focuses on WW1 and early aircraft.

Off US 1 in maine just past Camden

3) Willow Grove NAS

Good News- Bad News. There are some great rare birds including the Me 262 and the Convair Sea Dart. Trouble is, the Jarheads won't let you in! You can go to the wire fence and peer through the chains but thats it. Lots of USN early jets like Cutlass, Fury and Sea Dart.

Willow Grove is a suburb of Philly.

4) Garden City Airport

Not a Museum but a base for warbirds. They were very nice to me and Bruce the Mechanic let me tour hangers. There are mostly light planes, chipmonk and Moths with a Wildcat and a BT 13 also there. Lots of civvies.

4) Elmira Attractions include the Curtiss Museum, National Warplane Museum and the Soaring Museum. The Curtiss exhibit focuses on glenn Curtiss's efforts up to 1930 althought there is a nod to p 40 etc. The warbird Museum is also worth the trip. You are taken inside the restoration hanger first and shown the planes being worked on, then to the main hanger for the planes on display. There are some WW2 birds but focuses on jets. Star is "Fuddy Duddy" a working B17. Not much public flying, thank you insurance companies!

HAG 1941 Geneseo. Our host has a few light birds as well as hosting airshows.

NOW FOR THE FAC MEET

Fun, I met a lot of great guys there, some old friens and made new ones. It was a pleasure to meet you all, Garry, Jim, Peter, John, Dennis, Lin, Tom and so on!

I managed to total the fleet with only Cloud Tramp surviving The Payen, TBM, Sparky jr and the Crusader wiping out. The Mousetang is salvagable but may rebuild lighter. The TBM was rebuilt (new wings) and given to my son, The Forester. He actually wanted it as it was done in FOREST PROTECTION LTD colours, our provincial firefighters.

The planes did fly. I managed to get in a few flights to at least prove that they worked. I need to do a better covering job and lighten them up about 5 to 10 grams. I have some lighter wood so that may happen. Trim and power are the secrets of sucess here.

Note to local JIMMY L. be afraid I have Dennis Norman's tripe plan and am coming for you this fall!

The banquet was fun. Food was ok and the MC Ross M put on a good show.

Oh yeah, there was a Wedding between two modellers. Dennis N a master modeller and lay parson officiated.

The only thing that sucked was the weather and the construction on the roads Vt and NH were torn up in both directions.

On My next trip I'll go thru Canada and visit OTTAWA, Hamilton and Niagara for the plane museums there.

Follow the link to see all my pictures. About 15 are left in my camera and will come later.